This application claims benefit of Japanese Applications No. Hei 11-184085 filed in Japan on Jun. 29, 1999, No. Hei 11-368190 filed in Japan on Dec. 24, 1999 and No. 2000-158808 filed in Japan on May 29, 2000, the contents of which are-incorporated by this reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lens barrel device, a construction of a body frame housed in the lens barrel device, and a method of assembling the lens barrel device.
2. Related Art Statement
Conventional lens barrel devices having a body frame mechanism for retaining a photographing lens and for advancing and retreating the same include, for example, a lens barrel disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-67077 and No. Hei 6-94964 and having a body frame construction, in which two guide shafts fixed to or inserted through a lens retaining frame (frame member), serving as a reference, without play are slidably fitted into the other lens retaining frame (frame member) to drivingly advance and retreat the respective lens retaining frames along an optical axis. In addition, a lens or lenses are fixed to the above-mentioned lens retaining frames in a tube adhering condition.
With conventional lens barrels as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-67077 and so on, deviation in optical axes of lenses between lens retaining frames is determined by machining accuracy in lens retaining frames and guide shafts. Also, machining accuracy related to lens retaining frames and photographing lenses affects deviation in optical axes of photographing lenses relative to lens retaining frames. Further, when a plurality of groups of lenses move along an optical axis at the time of zooming, machining accuracy of guide shafts affects deviation in optical axis. Accordingly, there has been the need of adjusting these elements.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-257049 discloses and proposes, as a lens barrel device capable of assembly with high accuracy and cost reduction, a lens barrel using a lens retaining frame, which are divided into three sections.
With such conventional lens barrel, when lenses and lens retaining frames are assembled, an assembly jig first fixes and retains the lenses in a reference position relative to a stationary frame. While the assembly jig guides the lens retaining frame, which are divided into three sections each having a cam follower, the lens retaining frame is inserted into outer peripheries of the lenses from three directions. In this state, an adhesive is used to fix the lenses and the lens retaining frame to each other. The assembly jig is taken out, and assembly is terminated. The reason for dividing the lens retaining frame into three sections is to simplify die drawing and to enable multi-cavity molding.
With a conventional lens barrel shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-257049, however, the lens retaining frame is divided into three sections, an assembling operation is hard to perform, and the number of constituent parts is increased, so that productive efficiency is not necessarily good. Also, respective lenses are fixed directly to the lens retaining frame, assembly is carried out involving a dimensional error of the lens retaining frame.
Also, another issue is that it has been earnestly demanded to significantly suppress, as compared with conventional photographing lenses, an amount of deviation in optical axes between respective photographing lenses and groups of photographing lenses conforming to high magnifying power zooming in recent years. Further, while a lens barrel contains therein an AF mechanism, an AE mechanism, a zoom mechanism, an electrical equipment for driving of the mechanisms, and so on, conventional lens barrels are difficult to perform inspection separating a photographing lens optical system and the above-mentioned mechanisms from each other at the time of assembly.
The invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages, and has its object to provide a lens barrel device, which can ensure optical performance without being affected by accuracy of parts such as frame members, guide members, photographing lenses and so on, and which is easy to assemble and involves less time to assemble. Another object is to provide a method of assembling the lens barrel device.
To attain the above-mentioned objects, a lens barrel device according to the invention comprises an optical element, and a retaining frame having a retaining portion for retaining the optical element, an adhesive being filled between the retaining portion and the optical element, the optical element being retained by the retaining frame in non-contact condition without direct contact therebetween.
Also, a method of assembling a lens barrel device, according to the invention comprises mounting optical elements directly on a jig, then mounting frame members, which serve to retain the optical elements, directly on the jig in non-contact with the optical elements, then filling an adhesive between the frame members and the optical elements, and disengaging the jig from the frame members and the optical elements after curing of the adhesive.
In addition, the above-mentioned and other objects and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following description.